Tourism

THE GIANT SAN CARLO BORROMEO

The giant statue of San Carlo Borromeo stands near the town of Arona, close to the southern end of Lake Maggiore. The local people call it the “Sancarlone” (“Big St Charles”), and it is the symbol of the town.

This huge statue, erected in honour of the well-loved saint, who was born in Arona, is full of significance, and exemplifies a particular kind of religious faith which finds its expression in the outsize. San Carlo seems to look on his people kindly but severely; his head slightly inclined, the Saint blesses his native town with his right hand raised, while in his left hand he holds the great book of laws of the Milanese church.

Erected between 1614 and 1697 to a design by Giovanni Battista Crespi, the statue consists of a core made of masonry and an iron and wood framework covered with copper sheeting; the head and the hands are made of bronze. At 23.40 metres high, plus the 11.70 metres of granite pedestal, the statue is one of the biggest in the world. You can climb up inside the statue right to the massive head, from where the view out over the lake is exceptional.

UMBRELLA AND PARASOL MUSEUM

The Gignese Museum is the only one in the world devoted to umbrellas and parasols; its collection comprises over a thousand examples of umbrellas, parasols and handles. Some items are curiosities, or of considerable historical and cultural importance, like the umbrellas that belonged to Queen Margherita of Savoy or the Risorgimento patriot and politician Giuseppe Mazzini. The showcases display finely made and exquisitely decorated umbrellas, which visitors will find intriguing and ravishingly pretty. The section devoted to the life of the umbrella-makers includes photographs of pioneer craftsmen, rudimentary tools from workshops of the past, and the tools that the umbrella makers/menders used when they plied their trade in the streets of Italy and throughout the world.

Landscape Museum – Verbania Pallanza

The Museo del Paesaggio (“Landscape Museum”) of Verbania is one of the focal points of the local artistic heritage, with the most important collection of painting and sculpture in the area. It was founded in 1909 by Antonio Massara, a man of letters and popular culture, with the intention of highlighting the scenic beauty of the Lake Maggiore area through art. The Museum is housed in three separate buildings:Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Palazzo Biumi Innocentiand Casa Ceretti. Palazzo Viani Dugnani, in Verbania Pallanza, contains paintings by major local artists such as Daniele Ranzoni, Achille Tominetti, Carlo Fornara and Mario Tozzi. These pictures, of rare beauty, date from a period starting in the second half of the 19th century, when Romanticism was followed by the “Scapigliatura” movement and by Symbolism.